Forsaken Memories
by Kida-san
Summary: In which one life, half-forgotten, and another, half-wasted, collide, Axel is a gangster, and Roxas just wants to pass his classes. Oh, and not get killed in his sleep. AU AkuRoku with a side of RiSo and Zemyx
1. Waking to Life

Author's Note/Disclaimer:

-waves- Hello all! This is Kida-san, finally getting down to business and writing a real fanfic (there was an earlier attempt involving a whole crew of insane OC's, but that was scrapped) of AkuRoku goodness! And, just 'cause I think I have to say this: me no own Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy, 'cause if I did…. well… that'd be awesome. But I don't. Ah well. Oh yeah, and I don't own the song lyrics you'll see in italics- it's Get Out Alive by 3 Days Grace. It needed to be there, cause it pretty much inspired this whole fic. :3 Now then- onwards!

XxX

In the background, there was a song.

_No time for goodbye, he said, as he faded away._

There was a second voice in the background, too, but I wasn't paying attention to it. I was much more interested in the sad, pained undertones of the singer.

_Don't put your life in someone's hands, they're bound to steal it away._

Although I couldn't tell what was making the singer sad, there was such a raw power in the man's voice that I was finding himself sad just by listening.

_Don't hide from your mistakes, 'cause they'll find you, burn you, then he said_-

"ROXAS!"

I jerked up to a sitting position, headphones falling from his ears with the speed of my movement.

"Finally, I thought I was going to have to take desperate measures- resuscitate you or something. Maybe CPR."

I blinked. My older twin brother, Sora, was looming (if you could call it that) over my bed, obviously not happy with my lack of response. It took a few more seconds for my mind to catch up. I'd been… .listening to music? Yep, my headphones attested to that- besides, I remembered the singer's voice perfectly. And… I'd fallen asleep? It had seemed like I was dreaming, but I wasn't sure. Sora's presence could only mean that he wanted something (either food or company- had to be one of the two) but I had been spacing. All right, got that taken care of. Now to figure out what Sora wanted.

"Yeah?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ready to go?"

"Where?"

"Dinner! Food! Hungry!"

"And how is that you know a word like resuscitate?"

"I looked it up."

"You never cease to amaze me."

"Shut up, Rox, I was kidding. And come on, it's time to eat."

"Coming, coming." Resigned to my Sora-filled fate for the remainder of the evening, I turned off my iPod and hopped off my twin bed. From the desk next to my bed I grabbed my keys and student ID and pocketed them in a side pocket of my favorite black-and-gray pants before dutifully following my significantly happier brother out the door. Our dorm hall was a huge U-shaped building, with the main entrance and cafeteria both in the very middle. I'd found out earlier that day that my room was near the end of the southern wing- on the bottom floor, no less. Nice.

"-and Kairi said to tell you hi, by the way, and that she misses you already."

Giving Sora an incredulous sideways look (a talent, I'm sure of it), I raised an eyebrow. "You mean that she misses _you_, I assume?" And, as I'd known he would, Sora fought a blush via grinning almost embarrassedly at the floor. Heh, why did he even bother to try to hide? Seriously. We're _twins_, man. Fraternal, but whatever. We even look similar, same height and everything, except that Sora has crazy-spiky chocolate-brown hair while mine's blond and kinda swept to one side (a look that takes skill- and a lot of gel- I'm telling you). Other than that, we look about the same- even down to our eyes, but enough people have told us that they look freakishly blue that I don't feel like going to detail. They're blue. You get the point.

"Have you met your roommate yet?" I asked, knowing that'd get him excited so that he'd talk enough for the both of us. I could tell it'd worked when his eyes lit up with obvious glee. "Yep!" He chirped. Geez, he must really like the guy. "His name is Demyx, and he's really nice! He likes a lot of the same music I do, but he's way, _way_ more into music than I am, more than anyone I've ever met, so he knows a lot more bands than me! And he's letting me borrow some of his CDs!"

He was clearly going to continue telling me everything I could possibly want to know (even while we were getting our IDs swiped to get into the cafeteria) about this Demyx guy, but a thwack on the head distracted him. He determinedly glared up at the offender, but only for a few seconds. This was Sora, after all, so a few seconds later he slung an arm around his best friend's shoulder like he hadn't just been pretending to be angry. That was Riku, the tall (bastard), silver-haired heartthrob. Poor girls- Riku was, quite obviously to anyone but Sora, gay. As in, he had no interest in girls. At all. Only my brother. His pining was funny to watch, especially since Sora liked him back. Not that the brunet knew that. No, he was too happy being Kairi's boyfriend to get out of his 'denial' phase, but I'm not his twin for nothing. I've seen the two of them cuddle when they're both asleep. It's almost sickening, it's so cute. Idiots.

"You going to introduce this amazing roomie of yours to me or what?" asked Riku, giving Sora a smirk. Sora grinned back and opened his mouth to speak, but never got the chance. It's a bit difficult to talk to someone when you're being tackled. Enthusiastically. "What's this I hear about an awesome roomie?" It was a taller blonde, and with his "Heartless" hoodie, I could only assume this was the Demyx I'd been hearing about. Seems the people at this school match personalities pretty well, judging by the guy's energy and… mulleted hair? Was that a mullet, or a mullet-mohawk mixture gone wrong, or what? I couldn't tell. Huh. Anyway, it definitely seemed like he and my brother would get along.

"Riku, Roxas, this is Demyx, my new roommate!" Sora then turned to grin at Demyx. "That's my baby brother Roxas and Riku, my best friend. You have people you're eating with already?"

Demyx nodded with a broad smile. "Yep, I'm eating with my friends. Lexy and Larxy and Zexy are all here already. See you later, okay?" And with that, Demyx trotted happily off to the front of the cafeteria where you get your entrées. The three of us followed with less flourish, Sora and Riku talking about their move-in experiences. I don't really know why, but my mind was apparently stuck on mulling over the music I'd been listening to. There was something about that song… meh, that's stupid. It was just a song. Period. It was time to drag my mind back to the present- at least long enough to procure some cheeseburger casserole. It looked edible enough, unlike the fish sticks- and I _like_ fish. So that should tell you something. Glancing around, I took in the cafeteria. It was a big rectangular room, with a bunch of circular tables filling one half of the room and a row of rectangular tables filling the other half. Sora and Riku were sitting at one circular table, along with Tidus and Selphie, two friends of theirs from when we'd lived on Destiny Islands, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette, friends of mine from Twilight Town. Why from two different places, you ask? Well, that's a bit of a long story. But I'll keep it short.

Sora and I grew up on Destiny Islands, but our parents split up when we were ten. Messy ordeal with a bit of cheating (Dad) and a lot of unhappiness for all parties involved. So we moved with Mom to Twilight Town, visiting Dad, his new wife, and our step-brother Cloud every so often. I don't like our step-mother much, but Cloud's all right. He's two years older than us, and is pretty quiet most of the time. So we get along pretty well. Figures, right? Sora actually likes our step-mom, but she's actually really nice to him. She doesn't much care for me though, even if our interactions are always perfectly civil. Sometimes I swear she's bipolar, but good luck telling Dad that- he's in love, or so he says. So I just keep my mouth shut, which is probably for the best.

Apparently I'd been zoning out again because I was sitting down at the table before I registered my surroundings. Sora was pouting, so I gave Riku a questioning look. "He asked if you'd met your roommate." He said, obviously amused. I sighed and returned my attention to my twin, saying, "No, he hadn't gotten here yet when I left." That done, I was finally able to pay more attention to my friends, since Sora was already talking to Tidus about Struggle. "How went your move in?" I asked Hayner and Pence, who were rooming together. Hayner just gave me a dark look, so I turned to Pence for an explanation. "I stepped on his Struggle bat as he was about to put it away." The chubby brunet told me, failing at hiding a grin. "Other than that, fine. My parents let me bring my kit (aka his huge-ass set of science lab equipment), so all in all a good day."

"For you! I have to get used to a new Struggle bat now!" Hayner accused, jabbing the air with his fork. Pence snorted, which launched the two into a debate about personal property, the holiness of sports/science equipment, etc etc. I just grinned, eating my meal in silence. I would have started talking to Olette, but she was deep in conversation with Selphie about their classes the following day, so I left them alone. I glanced down at my tray, and seeing that it was empty, waved my good-bye to the table and made my way to the very left wall of the cafeteria, where a conveyor belt that looked like it had been made in the 80s shuffled food off to the great unknown- I assumed the kitchen. Good, I was free from the others.

I sighed again as I left the cafeteria and passed through the dorm's main lounge to get to my wing of the building. I didn't really know anyone yet, and probably wouldn't ever get to know most of them anyway, so I didn't acknowledge anyone as I walked to the very end of the hallway littered with doors leading to rooms exactly like mine. My eyes sort of unfocused, not really looking at the people or the white walls or the navy carpet, just letting my legs carry me to the end of the hallway. From the depths of my pants' pockets I withdrew my keys and, after fumbling with the lock for a minute, I finally figured out the you turn the key _clockwise_, and father than you should have to, and opened the door, expecting to see a blissfully empty room. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Inside was probably the craziest-looking guy I'd ever seen. He was tall, way taller than me, and skinny, with flaming red hair and- were those tattoos under his eyes? Seriously, who got tattoos on their face? Weird. He was unpacking a duffel bag, tossing clothes all over his bed while bobbing his head to the music coming from his earbuds. I still hadn't moved when he turned and saw me standing in the doorway, shocked into temporary paralysis. All I was thinking was: _this is guy they assign as my roommate?_ Say what you will, the guy had to be clinically insane. And then he was looking at me with these freaking _intense_ emerald green eyes that lit up like a cat's the second he saw. Taking out a single earbud, he flashed me a smirk. That somehow broke me out of my stupid paralysis and I stepped into the room, letting the door swing shut behind me. I didn't get a chance to say anything, not that I knew what I wanted to say in the first place, because he strolled over to where to my perch by the doorway and stuck out his hand. "I'm Axel. A X E L. Got it memorized?" Somehow I got the feeling I said that a lot. I hesitantly shook his hand, keeping my gaze on his.

"Roxas." I said in reply. Axel's grin widened. "Well Roxas," he said, "this should be an interesting year."

XxX

A/N:

Woooow, that was short. Well, I'll work on that for the next chapter. I really liked that ending point, though. ^_^


	2. Seeing Things As They Are, and Aren't

**Chapter 2**

**Seeing Things as They Are, and Aren't**

_Axel's grin widened. "Well Roxas," he said, "this should be an interesting year."_

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay…" I said, slightly confused. What exactly was going to make this an interesting year, anyway? Ah well, I wasn't going to ask. Instead I launched myself up from the small white stepstool onto my bed, and sat with my legs crossed, facing Axel. "So what's your major?" I asked, just to defy the numbness of my unhelpful brain. "Chemistry." He said, that same broad smirk on his face. Weird, I wouldn't have thought of him as a science major. Was I stereotyping? Probably. Still, he just seemed too… wild for something like that. He must have seen some evidence of my confusion on my face, because a few seconds later he added, "I like to set things on fire. Or, rather, fire in general. So I decided to be a chem. major. What about you? What are you here for?"

Should have known. I held in my third sigh of the evening as I replied, "Linguistics." And waited for the- "But… why? What's interesting about that?" Yep, I knew it. Everyone pretty much asked that, so I was almost used to it by now. Almost, but not quite.

"I like words." Axel shook his head at my answer, turning back around to continue unpacking.

"Well," He began, "since you aren't going to ask, I'm from Hollow Bastion so it's a short trip home, I have an older brother who I hope you never have to meet, and I got these tattoos on my eighteenth birthday."

I was silent, not really sure how to respond. Well, I figured, he's probably expecting me to say something similar back. You know, the traditional 'get to know your roomie' stuff. Great. "I'm from Twilight Town, and I have a slightly older twin named Sora who you'll probably meet pretty soon. That's pretty much it." Okay, so I didn't really like to talk about myself much. At all. If I didn't hate psychiatrists, and I do, one might say that I have trust issues. Seriously. As in, if I didn't know someone well I really hated them knowing more than basic stuff about me. Call it irrational, people always do. It's just something that really bothers me. Maybe I'd trust this Axel guy more eventually, but just being assigned as my roommate didn't give him a "Get Insights Into Roxas Free" card.

Silence decided to set up camp in our room after that. Axel focused on unpacking (if you can count unceremoniously stuffing clothes into a drawer unpacking) and when I realized he wasn't going to say anything else I grabbed my iPod, hooked the headphones over my ears, and snatched the black spiral notebook from the end of my bed and the pen sitting on top of it. Japanese rap flooded my ears as I absentmindedly began to write.

"What the crap is that?" came Axel's query from right by my head. I jumped about a foot, definitely not expecting him to get _that_ _freaking_ _close to me_. He was looking down at my notebook curiously. Uneasy, I scooted away from the insane one and closer to the wall.

"It's a code-thing I came up with last year." I explained. He leaned a bit closer to get a better look and I restrained myself from giving him a fist in his face. Geez, hadn't the guy ever heard of personal space? I scowled up at him, and Axel finally backed off, chuckling. Okay, I really didn't like this guy. All I'd wanted to do was describe a new character that had decided to make himself known to me earlier that day. Oh, you think that's weird? I would say "a character that I'd come up with earlier that day", but it didn't exactly happen that way. Characters just sort-of pop up in my mind sometimes, so I write about them. Sora says that I have a bunch of little people living in my head, so I must be schizophrenic. I disagree, not that anything I say makes a difference. I swear, why I tell him anything at all is beyond me. Sheesh. But Axel didn't seem capable of leaving me alone for longer than five minutes, I closed my notebook, put the pen in a pants pocket, and without a word stalked out of the room.

XxX

Well, well, well. Being the observant creature that I am, I watched Roxas out of the corner of my eye as he huffed and pouted his way out the door. It was only when the door clicked shut that I allowed myself a full smirk in all its Axel-ish glory. Oh, are you confused? Allow me to explain.

I'm Axel Nakamura, pyro extraordinaire and resident sexy beast. Yeah, be amazed. I am. But more to the point, I was also apparently the roommate of a very moody blond. I wasn't kidding when I said this year was going to be interesting. You see, I have an excellent memory, and it helps that Roxas isn't exactly a common name. Starting to get the picture here? Yeah, I said I was from Hollow Bastion, that much is true. That's why I'm going to school here (Hollow Bastion University, if you must know), if you must know- they give scholarships to residents. But back the point, namely that I didn't actually grow up here. Nah, my parents had wanted to raise my brother and me on Destiny Islands. I wasn't sure why Roxas didn't remember me (and it was apparent by his _adorably_ confused expression when he opened the door that he didn't), but I was sure as hell going to find out. At some point. Somehow. Maybe it was because he hadn't seen my in ten years, who knows?

I was still smirking broadly as I dragged a beat-up guitar case out from under my bed and plopped it on my bed. This was my baby, the one thing besides fire I really cared about. Ha, makes me sound pretty gay, doesn't it? Whatever, I like my music. Probably not quite as much as Dem, but everyone knows he's absolutely crazy about anything that every remotely resembles music, which is why the freak has his sights set on the MAE program (Masters of… Something About Teaching) so he could teach music to little kids or something like that. Like I said: freak. Don't get my wrong, Dem's my best friend. When it comes to him, freak is a term of endearment.

After turning off my MP3 player I sat down on a free spot on my bed, opened up my guitar case, hoisted out the acoustic, and started plucking aimlessly at its strings. This is what I liked best about music, I think. Just playing without any real point to it, without really thinking about it. And then my phone rang. Scowling, I rifled through a pocket in my black cargo pants and flipped the cell open.

"Sexy beast speaking." Yeah, that was how I usually answer my phone. Like I said before: be amazed.

"Axel." Ah, it was Xemnas. Oh joy. "We have a new member joining us tonight. 11 o'clock. Stokes Cemetery." My smirk turned almost feral. A new member meant initiation, which meant plenty of fire. Heh.

"No problem. I'll be there."

"Until then."

He hung up, not giving me a chance for some witty reply. Well fine then. I would have given the phone a dirty look, but I was too excited by my new-found plans for later that night. I slipped my phone back into its former pocket and returned to fiddling with my guitar, mind again elsewhere.

XxX

My roommate was an idiot. A crazy idiot, no less. Apparently I wasn't going to be spending much time in my room this year- my first year at college. If you hadn't guessed yet, I wasn't much of a people person. I can't figure anyone out (except maybe my brother) and no one seems to have gotten me figured out either. Granted, that might be partially my fault what with my need for a certain level of anonymity, but whatever. I had my friends and we got along most of the time. That was enough for me. But if Axel was going to be there all the time and doing everything possible to piss me off like before we were going to have problems. Well, he'd probably figure out to leave me alone soon enough. Everyone always did.

In hindsight, my exit might have been a bit… melodramatic (hey, at least I hadn't slammed the door), but it was definitely worth it. I just wish I knew Hollow Bastion University's campus better. Then maybe I wouldn't have been parked on a park bench (oh the irony), bent over my notebook like before. The only thing I knew about this park (if you could call it that, stupid place was so small) was that it was just on the other side of the obviously inadequate parking lot for Ryle Hall, the dorm building that was now officially my personal hell. There was a trail that ran the length of the park, from the parking lot to Main Street one of the two biggest streets in Hollow Bastion. I was just glad that benches and tables were scattered throughout the park so I could write in peace, in the corner farthest away from Ryle.

_Tadanobu Sato_

_Kitsune_

_As a human, Sato has a mop of white-blonde hair that goes almost to his chin with bangs that are constantly obscuring his vision._

_Sato's natural form is that of a slightly-larger-than-average fox. In fact, he has even been known to be called cute in the past. Beware. He can and will exploit this._

A grin tugged at my lips. I couldn't help it- this new character of mine was just crazy- he was a fox demon, Japanese style, who had a knight-in-shining armor complex. So yeah, none of my characters were exactly 'normal'- probably says a lot about me. Ah well.

Crap. I scowled skyward, at the retreating sun that was making writing increasingly more difficult by the second. Stupid sunset, that meant if I wanted to work on Sato's personality I'd have go inside- probably back to the Room From Hell, Courtesy of el Clinically Insane Roommate. Trying to get anything written in Sora's room would be like trying to do homework at an arcade- it just wouldn't work. There was always Hayner and Pence's room, but that was a trap, too. Without a doubt we'd just end up playing video games. All right then, nothing for it but to go back and hope that Axel had left in the hour or two I'd been gone.

I trudged back slowly, wanting to do anything but rush, up the walk and through the parking lot and through the small door on the southern end of the U. Extracting the keys from my pocket yet again, I unlocked the door, expecting the immanent smell of brimstone (or at least smoke of some kind), but was surprised to find the room (relatively) empty. Axel had already left, for what I had no idea. Relieved, I permitted myself a small smile, and flopped down on my bed, grabbed my headphones (I could feel a tradition forming), and closed my eyes, letting my mind drift off into something like sleep.

A/N

Finally, another chapter! I'm soooo sorry it took so long to update! I have about a million excuses, but oh well. I updated. So be happy. xD

Now then, on to business:

I need two things, if people would be kind enough to oblige. The first is a beta reader, or something to that extent. It'd be great to talk to someone about this story-thing that just kinda started writing itself, plus get another pair of eyes looking at grammatical stuff/ spelling errors/ typos. 's new (to me) Beta stuff is a little intimidating, so I just figured I'd ask if anyone was interested. So… anyone interested?

The second thing isn't so much a need, I guess. It might make the writing better and the chapters longer though. -wink wink- Can you guess? Yep, reviews! I don't even particularly care what you say (just please don't be unnecessarily mean, just mean enough to get the point across, if you want to be mean at all). So please review and make me happy. Okay, enough begging. Kida, signing off!


	3. Emoshortie and Humanbug

**Chapter 3**

**Unknown**

Some people think MP3 players are for losers. I disagree- iPods, those titans of music-playing hardware, are for losers. So leave me and my four-year-old MP3 player alone. Hah.

Heavy rock pulsed in my ears (Ars Arcanum, for all you Axel-fanatics) as I lay, an hour early, in Stokes Cemetery. I guess you could say the place was a hang-out of sorts, sometimes for just me and sometimes for everyone in the Organization.

Now, the Organization is a funny thing. It's basically a gang, created by our Lord and Master Mansex (aka Xemnas, aka Superior) and absolutely as stupid as it sounds. I mean, seriously- it's called the Organization. But Xemnas is rich as fuck, and sometimes our 'missions' are plain awesome. There was this one time involving me, a lighter, and an HBU class building (Magruder Hall, if memory serves)… but I digress. Stupid forensics people even found out I was the one who tried to torch it (and came pretty close, too), but Xemnas just bought them all off, and his family already the police under their thumb, so there was no one left to prosecute. Heh. Nights like those made being Xemnas's lackey worth it, not to mention initiations. Those were always good nights.

_I'd left the room around sunset. Stokes was a decent walk from Ryle, through the Bailey (downtown Hollow Bastion) and just to the west off the main part of the town. I liked it though, so pretty anyone who knew me well (basically the other Org. members) knew to find me here. Grinning, I slipped into a memory, the night I first started coming here._

_It was dark, but I always had liked the night better anyway. My mom and her boyfriend were already stoned off their asses so they couldn't care less if I stayed out all night, even though I was a junior in high school. Sometimes being 'raised' by addicts was pretty fucking awesome._

_I wasn't doing anything illegal though, if you don't count breaking curfew. But none of the cops around here cared about curfew. There were plenty of worse things going on than renegade kids. So I wandered, not even giving a crap about where I was going as I flicked the lid of my lighter open and shut, open and shut, open and-_

_Shut._

_I could hear a guy talking, and he didn't sound that much older than me. A college kid maybe? Curiosity got the better of me, and I strode forward. I got to the edge of Stokes Cemetery before I could clearly make out what he was saying._

"_We are the Organization- all incomplete people, searching for a way to become whole. Tonight another Nobody will join our ranks. Do any object to Saix's presence among us?"_

_For a few moments, no one spoke. From my vantage point near the entrance of the cemetery I could see a circle of six people, all in black trenchcoats with hoods shrouding their faces, surrounding a long-haired guy. From what I'd heard, it wasn't like the guy was in any immediate danger or anything. Or, at least, none that he hadn't asked for herself._

"_Then let us commence. Saix, you know what happens next?"_

"_Yes. I allow you to show me what it means to be a Nobody."_

"_Good. Now then-" the guy stopped speaking as he turned to look in my direction. Belatedly, I realized I'd shifted my weight and snapped a twig. How ridiculously cliché. Even in the dark I swear I could see his amber eyes boring directly into my green pair. Shitshitshitshit…_

"_Yes?" His voice drawled, some weird mixture of annoyance and amusement. Well, too late for being discreet. I swaggered forward like I owned the place, keeping my eyes on the guy who'd been speaking._

"_Yo." Was by brilliant greeting._

"_What do you think you're doing?"_

_That stumped me for all of, oh, a second. "Passing by, and then listening to your riveting sermon." I swore then that I could see his eyes glint, but when he spoke, his voice was subdued, his words deliberate._

"_Then we'll just have to have a double initiation, won't we, my fellow Nobodies?" A wave of hushed, bone-chilling laugher swept through the group of hooded group. Well… shit. There was no getting out of this. That much was obvious. So I just nodded, figuring that if worse came to worse I could always burn someone's gear off. A tough hide built up over the years was useful, it turned out, and I only felt the first few blows._

Dramatic, no? I always thought that night made a great story for parties. The only thing that would have made it more interesting would be if I'd been gang-raped, but I wasn't. Which is just fine with me. Fine, fine, don't appreciate my humor.

The sound of steady footsteps completely messed up my almost-pouting (because real sexy beasts don't pout, except to get what they want). "Hey Dem." I called. Before you ask, no I didn't need to look and see who it was to know it was Demyx.

"Early again?" He asked, his voice tinged with amusement. Damn, a non-hyper Demyx was creepy, I kept forgetting that. Not like I let my slight creeped-out-ness show. Nah, that'd look weak, and no one in the Organization would ever let themselves look weak. Well, except for Demyx, but I'm pretty sure that was entirely on purpose.

"Hell yeah, you know this is my favorite spot in all of Hollow Bastion." It was at that point when I actually sat up (I'd previously been lying on top of one of those metal coffin things that they don't bury like they do regular coffins) and grinned at Dem. He grinned back, but I got the feeling it was just as fake as mine. Ah well, that's Demyx for you. "Ready for another initiation?" I asked, loading my voice with as much bravado as was humanly possible- which was typical for me, now that I thought about it…

Demyx's grin turned lopsided, changing into a smirk. "You know I don't actually participate in this kind of thing. The Superior just wants everyone to be here so we look intimidating." I snorted, but it was completely true.

"Whatever." I told him airily. See, Dem wasn't violent like the rest of the Orgy (heh). I'm not even really sure why he ever sold his soul to his royal Pain-in-the-Ass-ness in the first place, since the only thing about being in the Organization was the vandalism missions (Dem liked to, as he put it, "stick it to the Man"). Probably because of me, if I had to guess. We've been friends practically since I moved here, so it really wouldn't surprise me if he was looking out for me by being number IX.

Apparently I'd been spacing out again, because Demyx poked my shoulder, asking, "What are you thinking about?"

I smirked at him. "Your sexy ass." I replied automatically. It was what I said every time anyone asked me that stupid question, no matter who they were. Dem rolled his eyes.

"Cant you ever give a serious answer?" He muttered, not really annoyed.

"Ask a better question." I shot back.

"Answer the one I already asked and I might."

"Shut up, Dem."

"Not a physical possibility."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. "And you say I use the same lines all the time. You've been saying- and I quote- 'Not a physical possibility' since middle school." Ah, there we go- my wiggling Dem-imitation finally got Demyx to laugh, turning him back into the guy was I was more used to.

"You're a dork, I don't sound like that." He admonished, waggling a finger at me.

"I don't sound like that, Axel, you annoying but alluring sexy beast." I mocked, wiggling more.

"Really, Axel? Wiggling? Demyx doesn't wiggle." Commented a soft but confident voice behind me. I almost fell off my new favorite metal coffin thing (I really should figure out what those things are called) I whirled around so fast.

"Zexion you ass, don't do that." I snapped, not happy at all. Zex always snuck up on me, but I could never retaliate! He always knew I was there! I never could figure out how. It annoyed me.

"He didn't mean to, right Zexy?" Demyx looked hopefully at the newcomer, a sophomore who was almost as short as Roxas with slate-colored emo-hair (seriously, it's emo-hair). He raised a single visible eyebrow (the over being covered with the previously-mentioned hair).

"Zexion." He corrected tonelessly. To my credit, I didn't roll my eyes or show any of my amusement when Demyx's smile visibly faltered. Demyx-smiles never faltered. Can you say 'serious crush'? What a school-girl.

"I'm sure he didn't, Dem." I told him dryly, the barest hint of a smirk tugging at my lips.

"Right!" Chirped Demyx brightly, his good mood (or at least façade, I couldn't tell which at this point) restored. "So what brings you here, Zexy?"

"The new member is being initiated tonight, in maybe half an hour. I expect the others will be getting here soon as well. This is also why you're here, correct?"

"I- I mean, yeah. The new guy- or is it a girl this time?" Nice, I thought, excellent recovery Dem. I'm sure he didn't even notice the stutter. Hurr.

"A freshman, Larxene. She's majoring in physics."

"Holy crap Zex, how do you know all that?" I exclaimed, cutting off whatever Dem was about to say. The shortie didn't answer, just stared off into the distance. I twisted around, following his gaze, and was absolutely overjoyed (note the sarcasm) to see a head of pink hair approaching.

"Marluxia." Was my bland greeting.

"Axel, nice to see you again."

"Likewise." I drawled mockingly. What can I say, Marluxia had a stupid, formal way of talking.

Marluxia decided to ignore me then (which pissed me off- I hated being ignored), preferring to stand annoyingly close to Demyx. "Is it just going to be us tonight, then?" He asked Dem, leaning forward just a little. I growled softly in my throat. Now I know what you're thinking- why was I getting working up over Dem? Well, if you weren't thinking it, you are now. So let me explain.

I'm a possessive bitch.

Yep, that's pretty much it.

And Marluxia was straight (I'd seen him making out with some blond chick earlier that day), and even more importantly an ass. So he was not going to hit on my best friend. Not when it was just going to be some damn game for him.

"The original six were going to make an entrance." Zexion commented, taking a single step from behind me.

I smirked. "Then why didn't you wait for them, Zex?" I pointed out. The shortie shot me a quick glare before wiping his face of an expression again. O… kay. That was different. Oh well. I turned my attention back to Dem, noting the distance the bastard- Marluxia- had put between himself and my faux-hawked friend. Heh, even bastards were afraid of Zexion-glares. A smart bastard then, I amended mentally. "He probably didn't want to take away from the effect- a bunch of giants and a midget? How sad would that look?" I "whispered" conspiratorially. Dem snorted, tried hastily to hide it behind a hand, and failed. Epicly (it's a word if I say it is). Ha! Triumph! Yeah, so I liked to piss Zexion off sometimes. He needed to get ticked off once in a while or he'd probably keel over from lack of emotion.

He was even worse than Roxas.

I was considering saying something else to piss Emo-shortie off when I heard a quiet, "They're here." (Poltergeist, Dem? Really? Wow.) Approaching te four of us were 7 hooded figures wearing the same trenchcoats that were the trademark of the Organization. My smirk widened as I pulled my own hood over my head, shadowing my face. Well, I mused, they did made an entrance, even if there were two of the newer Org. members instead of just the Original Six (the "original six" ad all known each other from childhood, according to Zexion). But their wordless approach, stopping just a few feet away from mu tomb-thing, could only mean- ah. That must be her. A blonde, human-bug (holy crap, it was the chic the Bastard had been making out with!) swaggered up a few more feet behind the hooded (Satanist-looking) group. This was the new member? Our number XII? The token female of the group (besides the Bastard. And Saix. And Man- er, Xemnas)?

Xemnas raised one hand above his head and snapped his fingers. Like well-trained dogs the other ten of us moved to circle around Human-bug who was grinning acid (don't ask me how that works, I have no idea). My smirk was probably barely visible underneath my hood as I waited, mute, for Xemnas to start. I didn't have to wait long.

"Tonight is a very special night. We are the Organization- all incomplete people, searching for a way to become whole. Tonight another Nobody will join our ranks. Do any object to Larxene's presence among us?"

It was almost exactly the same as that fateful (heh) night. The only differences were that one, I wasn't getting initiated, and two, this was Larxene. Instead of looking all somber like Saix had, or freaked, like Dem had, she just leered at us, looking from one Nobody to another. After those first initial seconds of quiet (like anyone was going to object), she barked out a laugh.

"Trying to become whole? You're interested in hearts, then?" She asked Xemnas (since he was the only one who'd spoken so far), giggling a little.

"Isn't the goal of the Organization…" I paused for dramatic effect, "to understand the mysteries of the heart?"

Beside me, Dem sniggered quietly. Xemnas raised a hand again (I'm pretty sure he thought he was a preacher), effectively silencing us all. "Then it's time." A small click seemed to echo in the silence: I'd flicked open my lighter.

Let the fun begin.

((A/N: -dodges rotten fruit- Soooo sorry for the ridiculous delay! I'm horrible, I know! But look on the bright side: the chapter was Axel-centric! Cause, really, who can resist? And because the chappie was going to be twice as long (the other half with Roxas) but I thought I should get this posted). But what do you guys think- should I keep the half-and-half thing? I'm enjoying it, and I hope you guys are, too! But let me know what you think, okay?

And Love-sama, I'm pretty sure you were the first person to reply, so even though you offered a few months ago (eep!) do you still have time to beta from here on? If so, I'll just… message you with my e-mail? Yep, I'll do that.

Don't forget to review! It might make me write faster! xDDD Kida, signing off!))


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